SUPPORT FPST

Facilities

The Department of Fire Protection & Safety at Oklahoma State University has a well established Fire Protection Laboratory located in a new building for the fire protection research and education. The laboratory has several lab units: fire behavior lab, fire pump lab, fire alarm lab, fire suppression lab, and industrial hygiene lab.

The laboratory has the full capability to perform small and medium-size fire testing. The OSU facility currently has the following equipment.

Large Calorimeter: The large calorimeter is equipped with an 18,000 cfm exhaust fan is capable of analyzing test fires with up to two megawatts of heat release rate. The large calorimeter is used for conducting several standard fire tests including NFPA 286, ASTM E1537, and 16 CFR 1633.

Cone Calorimeter: The cone calorimeter has been built to meet the existing standards, such as ASTM E1354 and ISO 5660. The ASTM E1354 standard test method has been developed for fire retardant material design and evaluation, as well as research and development to help make fire measurements. The cone calorimeter can be used to evaluate fire characteristics of various polymer nanocomposite materials and insulation materials.

Limiting Oxygen Index (LOI) Test Apparatus: The LOI tester is widely used as a laboratory research tool to measure the flame retardancy properties of different polymer materials. The test apparatus consists of a heavy-duty Pyrex chimney and a sample holder. The instrument has all necessary control valves, flow meters and filters built in and a digital display of oxygen concentration to ±0.1%. Standardized tests, such as the ASTM D2863 and ISO 4589, have been developed and can be utilized to measure LOI values for different flame retardant materials.

FT-IR Microscopes: The Hyperion FTIR Microscope from Bruker is housed in the shared facility 310DA HBRC at OSU and maintained by the chemistry department. Dr. Wang is the Co-PI of purchasing this equipment which is available to FPST department. The equipment consists of Hyperion 2000 microscope, Tensor 27 IR spectrometer, external measurement channels, and OPUS software and data system. The microscope can be used to investigate combustion behaviors of the synthesized flame retardant materials, especially their surface structure before and after the combustion.